Cloaca Maxima (urban sewer)
Cloaca Máxima (alcantarillado urbano abovedado)
- Date
- c. 600 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Rome, Italy
- Credited to
- Etruscan kings of Rome (Tarquinius Priscus / Tarquinius Superbus)
- People
- 👤 Lucio Tarquinio Prisco700 BCE–578 BCE
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A large drainage channel that dried out the Forum valley and carried wastewater to the Tiber, vaulted in stone in the Republican period. The first monumental sanitation system of a major Western city.
What it led to
- Urbanisation of Rome's civic centre on previously marshy ground
- A sanitation model replicated in the Roman colonies
- Reduced epidemics and the viability of a city of a million people
- Connected public latrines and regulation of discharges
Built on
- Grid-planned cityc. 2600 BCE
- Urban drainage and brick-lined wellsc. 2600 BCE
- Standardized fired brickc. 2600 BCE
- Urban sewer system and flush latrinec. 2500 BCE
- True voussoir arch and barrel vaultc. 300 BCE
- Modern flush toilet with S-trap1775-1852
- Drains of the Indus Valley
- Etruscan drainage tunnels (cuniculi)
Made possible
- Public bath (Great Bath)c. 2500 BCE
- Terracotta pressure pipes and flushing toiletc. 1700 BCE
- Roman public bathsc. 100 BCE
- Public latrine
- Roman baths
- Urban planning of Roman colonies